Pray for Summer's End
by Meatball42
Summary: "...so cold." After the events of Exit Wounds, Jack's outlook of the world has changed.


**Author's note: I had a writing bug in my fingers and none of my current multi-chaps felt like being written, so I just listened to a few likely songs on my iTunes til I got a bunny. This is based off of 'Summer's End' by the Foo Fighters. As usual, the plot is based off the lines of the songs, so I'd really be interested in seeing what people think of my interpretations.**

**Thanks for reading, and I hope you like! Please review!**

[*]

_In his dreams, they are in a beautiful place._

_They are together in the countryside, gazing out over those rich green, rolling hills. The ones Ianto always mentions from his youth, when he'd visit relatives who lived away from the cities, the urban sprawl. The ones Jack didn't see until his mid-twenties, on a distant planet a thousand years before his birth._

_He breathes in, and can taste the ever-present dampness of the air in this country, the sweat of his lover as they laugh and roll down those soft hills. The green scent of the healthy grass is beneath them, and below that, the musty smell of rich topsoil, full of nutrients for the plants…_

"No!"

Ianto sits up so suddenly that he's completely vertical before his eyes even open. Before he can shake the sleep from his mind he's curled up around the shaking form beside him, his lover's shrieks of fear and pain achingly loud in the empty bedroom of his flat. (Not the bunker. He'd learned that lesson quickly.)

"Jack, you're safe. It's me, Ianto, I'm here, you're safe. You're not underground anymore, you're in my flat, in my bed. Calm down, Jack, shhh."

"The dirt! It's so heavy! I can't breathe!"

Ianto pulls the blankets up from the bottom of the bed. He grimaces at the cold sweat that's already marked them, but settles them over himself and Jack anyway. He pulls the older man (Much older. Don't even think of how much older.) close to him, the real press of bodies hopefully chasing away the phantom weight of the earth.

"Slow down, Jack, Slowly. Take deep breaths. You're safe now. You're safe, I promise."

The shaking has diminished to shivers, and when Jack turns to face him suddenly, despite not having expected the outright terror in his eyes, Ianto can't say he's surprised. "I'm so cold," he whispers. "Can you make me warm?"

"Yes," Ianto promises. He clutches Jack to him, seized with a sudden urge to cry. But he knows he can't as Jack buries his head in his neck and his breath hitches and Ianto can feel Jack's tears on his skin. He runs his hand through Jack's hair and stares at the blue-white light of the moon on the wall.

[*]

_In his dreams, they are happy._

_It's humid, and they're eating inside a quaint little cottage. The door and windows are open, and a soft breeze tickles their skin. The sound of the wind over the hills is quiet, but it reverberates comfortingly like a woodwind instrument, the very ground shaping its notes._

_Moonlight streams into their home, making Ianto's blue-gray eyes glow silver as they watch Jack. His dark hair is gilded with the shining rays, and his skin looks whiter than the stars. He laughs, low and rumbling, over something they said to each other, and Jack can't take his eyes off those beautiful lips, reddened from the wine. He wants to bite them until they are swollen and bruised._

_So he does._

[*]

"Come inside, Jack! It's raining buckets!"

The captain looks more like a child, spinning around the Plas, letting out bursts of ecstatic laughter that sound like shrieks amidst the unhindered drumbeat of the rain. He ignores Ianto's calls, holding his arms out one minute, screaming to the dark sky, mouth open wide to catch the rain. The next moment he's jumping up and down, kicking water up into the air from the puddles already forming on the ground.

He rushes over to Ianto after another summons, but instead of getting on the lift, he drags the younger man onto the wide expanse of the Plas. The thick raindrops are distorting the light from the lamps along the edge of the arena, darkening their faces and making their shadows dance strange patterns over the ground.

Jack holds both Ianto's hands, dragging him close for a moment, then spinning him out, letting go to dance around him and laughing when Ianto stumbles.

"Isn't it amazing?" He shouts. He pulls Ianto to his chest and holds him tightly, their cheeks pressed together. "I feel so free, Ianto."

Ianto squeezes Jack tighter than he thinks he should, and can feel the vibrations through his chest when Jack crows at the thunder and lightning overhead.

[*]

_In his dreams, it is just the two of them._

_They walk along clear streams and lay on their backs in the grass to watch clouds. They race up the hills and across the valleys. At night, they can see the stars through their bedroom window, and sometimes Jack will whisper into his lover's ear of all the adventures he's had, but other times they will just watch the white sparkles across the sky until they fall asleep._

_They have sex in a copse of boulders, Jack enjoying the way Ianto's cries bounce off the rocks. They made love under a willow tree, which was Jack's idea as well. They would have sex with the sun directly overhead, but Ianto's skin burns easily, so they only sleep together inside during the day._

_The long hours of sticky, sweaty sex in their bed while the sun beats down outside are worth it._

[*]

They've been making out like teenagers for less than five minutes (Ianto checks it on the DVD player's clock) when Jack's wristband beeps. They both sigh into each others mouth and end the kiss, resting their foreheads together.

"You stay in," Jack says quietly. "You need your sleep. I can call Gwen."

"She's been on call just as long as I have," Ianto reasons, his voice dulled by the yawn that's trying to escape. "Let her have her date night."

"I thought that's what we were doing," Jack smiles. Ianto can hear it in his voice. Neither has opened his eyes.

"No, we were about to fall asleep on the couch." Ianto drops his head to Jack's shoulder. "We need more people, Jack. We can't go on like this."

"We don't need to recruit. We can handle it." The old arguments are beginning to sound weaker and weaker in his mouth.

"I can't handle this, Jack!" Ianto looks up and they finally meet each other's eyes. "I can't handle chasing after aliens eighteen hours a day! I can't handle watching you die twice a week, Jack! And we haven't had more than an hour to relax for weeks!"

"I'm sorry."

"Then do something about it! Something needs to change," he says firmly. "I can't go on like this."

Jack's gaze is intense for a long time, boring into his. "If you don't want to do this anymore, you don't have to."

Ianto blinks twice before he can respond. "That's not what I meant.""It's never going to be easy, Ianto. Not with us. Our life will always be full of death and aliens and we'll miss dates and fight and not have a moment to ourselves. I can't fix that."

Ianto shifts on the couch until their bodies are inches apart. "The fact that you said 'our life' means I'm never going to give up," he promises. "If the last few months haven't run me away, do you really think anything will?"

Jack's eyes are sparkling and his lips wobble as he tries to smile. "You could have such a great life, Ianto. No aliens shooting at you, no worrying about whether you'll have enough time to finish lunch before the next Rift alert. I just want you to be happy," he whispers.

"I am happy. With you." Ianto winks, and leans in so close they go cross eyed to keep each other's gaze. "And I wouldn't change this for the world."


End file.
